FOR a space I remained motionless, pondering on the strange words of the sorcerer, staring at the harmless-looking bamboo in my hand. Had I not known Nohul Voh so well, I should have thought him mad. How could this thing reveal a door in the rock wall of the temple? How could it “serve as a weapon,” unless I threw it at someone or used it as a club? Of what use could it be if--and the _if_ loomed very large indeed--I ever reached the Cave of the Bats with Itza? “Let us go!” exclaimed the prince. “Great is the wisdom of Nohul Voh. With his help shall we find Itza.” There was no harm in trying. I had intended to take the sorcerer’s hint and measure the temple and find where the secret chambers were situated, and calling our men together we hurried to the base of the great Kus. Carefully we paced the base on two sides. Then, entering the deserted passages, we repeated the operation within. To accomplish this was no easy matter, and I fumed and fretted at the time consumed in doing it. In no spot could we pace the whole length or width--walls, corners, columns and partitions intervened--but by measuring one room or passage, allowing for the thickness of the wall, and measuring the next and so on, we satisfied ourselves that the width of the place was so nearly that of the outer surface that no large secret chambers could be there. But the length fell far short of that on the outside. In fact, it was not half the extent, and somewhere beyond the sculptured wall that blocked us, we felt sure that Kinchi Haman, his followers and my Itza were concealed.